Twelve Days of Christmas: Christmas Down In Africa
by Brightness Wordweaver
Summary: Between the Civil and Infinity Wars, Christmas comes to Team Cap in Wakanda.


A/N: Welcome to Day Nine of my Twelve Days of Christmas ficathon! Each day will be in a different fandom, so check out the full list on my profile. Today's loose prompt: nine ladies dancing.

...

Okoye surveyed the group standing before her on the practice field. Despite the early hour, the full Dora Milaje was assembled for their daily sparring practice and exercises, armed and armored for battle. She counted again; everyone was there who had to be, but there was someone missing nonetheless.

"Where is Natasha?" she asked her aide, Ayo. "She didn't seem sick when I spoke with her yesterday."

Ever since the arrival of Captain Rogers and his allies in Wakanda, Natasha Romanoff had made it a regular practice to join the Dora Milaje in their morning drills. At first the blonde woman had been a little clumsy, having been trained in a different fighting style than Wakandans used. But she had worked hard at it, and along the way she and Okoye had achieved something like friendship. These days, it took an injury or serious illness to keep Natasha off the practice field.

"Natasha told me last night that she would not be coming today, and she was sorry she forgot to tell you," Ayo said. "She and the other Americans are celebrating Christmas today. It seems it is customary to rest from normal activity on such days."

Okoye knew what Christmas was-she'd accompanied King T'Chaka and Prince T'Challa on enough diplomatic trips to be fairly familiar with Western culture, even if she wasn't called upon to use the knowledge regularly. One side effect of Wakanda's isolationism was an almost total lack of American and European holidays celebrated in the country; Christmas was just one of many celebrations that simply passed by in Wakandan borders.

Still, their American guests would be homesick, and it would be good for them to gather and remember things from home, especially on a day that was important to them. If Okoye were to find herself exiled from Wakanda, she would still wish to celebrate the festivals she'd grown up with, even if she did so alone.

"It is perfectly all right. Natasha will be missed, but she has certainly earned the right to a day off. Everyone else," Okoye raised her voice, "form ranks! Begin drill one!"

...

It had taken some doing, but Steve had managed to pull together a Christmas celebration in Wakanda.

The small African nation didn't have coniferous trees, but he'd found wall hangings in the right colors, and small colorful ornaments that almost fit in. Natasha and Sam had agreed to help him hand-make a few things, and he had gifts for them and he suspected they had something for him. Vision and Wanda were coming, somehow, from wherever they'd been lying low, and they would all five celebrate together. Clint and Scott were stuck under house arrest in the States, and Bucky was still in cryosleep, but the rest of his team would be together, for Christmas.

He was not going to think about Tony or Rhodes, in New York, or Banner or Thor wherever they were, or Christmases in Stark Tower with JARVIS playing soft instrumental carols and Christmas trees _everywhere_ and talking and laughing until far too late at night.

He was already very good at not thinking about Christmases from before, where it was just him and his mom, or later, him and Bucky. They hadn't had much, but they'd made the most of it. There'd been music those Christmases too, a capella and off key, but there nonetheless, and they'd still stayed up late talking and laughing.

_Focus on this Christmas now_, he thought sternly. _You're in a good place with more people around you than you expected. That should be enough._

He was just glad there wouldn't be snow-he'd had enough white Christmases to last him several lifetimes.

There was a knock at the door to his suite-probably one of the others; they'd decided to have their Christmas in his area of the palace, since that was where most of the decorations had ended up. "Nat, Sam, is that you? Come in," he called.

"There's someone to see you, Captain," said a stranger's voice, accented with Wakandan.

Steve couldn't think of anyone who would be coming to see him, but it wasn't like everybody else was taking the day off. "Send 'em in."

He turned towards the door, and nearly let his jaw hit the floor. Bucky was standing in the entryway, wearing one of the fabric wraps that Wakandan men favored, hair a little longer-and sporting a new arm that could only be vibranium.

"Buck..." Steve couldn't find the words. "You're awake."

Natasha, Sam, Wanda, and Vision came crowding in behind the defrosted soldier, all grinning like Cheshire cats. The Wakandan man who had spoken was behind them. "His Majesty's team of scientists was planning to awaken your friend soon," he said. "However, King T'Challa advised them to schedule it for today, as he was under the impression today is a day of gifts and reunions for you."

"No kidding," Steve said hoarsely. He moved forward and caught his friend in a one-armed hug, both men clapping each other on the back. "Welcome back to life, Buck."

"'S good to see you too, punk," Bucky said, grinning. "I can't stick around-'m supposed to head north to the plains for some kind of therapy-but they said I oughta have Christmas with everyone."

It was, beyond a doubt, the strangest Christmas Steve had ever experienced, and he had had a couple of really weird ones since coming out of the ice. But he was with friends, even Bucky, and they stayed up talking and laughing until late at night, and that was all he needed.


End file.
